Kenichi Zenimura, Japanese American Baseball Pioneer

✍ Scribed by Bill Staples

• Publisher: McFarland
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 282
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

While the story of the Negro Leagues has been well documented, few baseball fans know about the Japanese American Nisei Leagues, or of their most influential figure, Kenichi Zenimura (1900-1968). A talented player who excelled at all nine positions, Zenimura was also a respected manager and would become the Japanese American community's baseball ambassador. He worked tirelessly to promote the game at home and abroad, leading goodwill trips to Asia, helping to negotiate tours of Japan by Negro League All-Stars and Babe Ruth, and establishing a 32-team league behind the barbed wire of Arizona's Gila River Internment Camp during World War II. This first biography of the "Father of Japanese-American Baseball" delivers a thorough and fascinating account of Zenimura's life.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Table of Contents......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 10
Foreword......Page 12
Preface......Page 14
Introduction......Page 22
1. Athlete in the Making (1900-1920)......Page 24
2. Breaking Down Barriers (1920–1924)......Page 41
3. Only the Ball Was Small (1925–1929)......Page 62
4. The Twilight Era (1930–1941)......Page 89
5. Relocating and Rebuilding Hope (1942–1943)......Page 125
6. A Taste of Freedom (1944)......Page 157
7. Rounding Third and Heading Home (1945)......Page 175
8. Passing the Torch (1946–1968)......Page 194
Appendix A......Page 220
Appendix B......Page 226
Appendix C......Page 240
Appendix D......Page 241
Appendix E......Page 242
Appendix F......Page 244
Appendix G......Page 251
Notes......Page 256
Bibliography......Page 270
Index......Page 274